There are various types of gas/liquid contacting apparatus wherein liquid passing downwardly through casing is contacted therein by gas passing upwardly through perforated trays which partition the casing at different levels.
In one type of gas/liquid contacting apparatus the liquid flows across the trays and is frothed thereon by gas permeating the tray perforations, see, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,005,316, dated Jun. 18, 1935, F. N. Hall, U.S. Pat. No. 3,022,054, dated Feb. 20, 1962, M. H. Kotzebue, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,895,608, dated Apr. 20,1999, A. T. Lee, K. Wu and L. Burton.
In another type of gas/liquid contacting apparatus ordered or randomly distributed packing elements of packed beds are supported by the trays. These beds increase the surface contact area between gas and liquid in the apparatus. The packed beds may be catalyst packed beds, see, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,514,377, dated Apr. 30, 1985.
There is a problem with a gas/liquid contacting apparatus in that liquid droplets and/or solids entrained in gas fed to the apparatus, particularly when the gas is at a high velocity, can prevent effective passage of gas upwardly through, for example, tray perforations and packings, and have other detrimental effects on the gas/liquid contact, see, for example, column 1, line 66, to column 2, line 12, of U.S. Pat. No. 5,895,608, referred to above. The liquid droplets and/or solids may be in the form of water or other liquids in steam or other gases, and solid contaminants in particulate form entrained in steam or other gases.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,895,608, dated Apr. 20, 1999, FIG. 1, shows a vapor feed line or reboiler return line, designated 32, which has a downwardly facing, vapor outlet which will, to a limited extent, deposit liquid droplets entrained in the vapor into liquid therebelow. However, no steam/entrained liquid droplets separation takes place in the vapor feed line, with entrained substance depleted steam exiting the feed line by a different outlet than the separated droplets, and so a significant amount of liquid droplets remains entrained in the steam which passes upwardly from the feed line.
There is a need for a gas/liquid contacting apparatus wherein an entrained substance separator, gas distributor, is provided in a lower, liquid collecting section thereof, which will,                i) separate a significant amount of entrained substances from the gas steam,        ii) provide different exits for the entrained substance depleted gas exiting from the distributor than those for separated, gas entrained substances exiting therefrom, and        iii) distribute the gas more evenly in the lower, liquid collecting section.        